Coolcrab

Are you going to share the .bas at some point? id love to take a look under the hood.

I'm glad that you like it. Is the behaviour good you think? I could make it keep going for stones even after getting 3, but that seemed a bit much. Got some space left though so open for suggestions.

Do you put that into the playfield enviroment or outside? It gives me errors. However I just tried pfvlines and that freed a lot up, got 43 now. pfvline 8 0 10 on pfvline 24 0 10 on I'm almost sad, it feels like I should fill it.

All bugs fixed! I managed to make the framerate stable by changing the pfread to a playfieldpos check and using it at playfieldpos=1. This shifted the top block creation to playfieldpos 1 instead of 0 and for some reason that fixed everything. I think that that is a good reason to stop touching it and just tweak some starting numbers. (Unless more bugs are found of course!) I'm quite happy with the game in this state. I also added an option to play vs the old AI (non moving one) by flipping the B/W switch. See it as a practice mode. Glad you like it. I think that the AI is quite cool no. I tried some of that and removed 2 pfchecks which gave me a lot. They are super heavy commands! Glad you like it! Bug is fixed in v24

Sound seems fine, but there is a graphics glitch now that appears when there is a gosub tree that goes more than 2 levels (it corrupts the memory apparently) The scanline problem is still there though. (it drives me crazy!) I'll compare the two programs for the space though, it amazes me how you squeeze so much out.

Major AI overhaul, it now chases after stones and gives you a good challenge. I also changed the graphics of the UI a bit. 2 bytes left, I want to add two more if statments, so need to free up space somehow. After that I think that its done.

Major AI overhaul, it now chases after stones and gives you a good challenge. I also changed the graphics of the UI a bit. 2 bytes left, I want to add two more if statments, so need to free up space somehow. After that I think that its done.

I tried some of that but im low on memory now. WOuld really be happy with a few more bytes. Want to add 2 more ifs. Could you take a look? EDIT: I found 22b and added them in. However the original error of this thread is back T_T The AI does too much I think and it just eats frames, but only when new branches are made. So a smartly placed drawscreen somewhere might fix it. If anyone sees it please tell me! MonkeyKing0.23.bas score_graphics.asm playerscores.asm

Very nice. I used a bit of this in my game.

I am trying to update the AI to be more livelike. It moves up and down to chase stones, but it seems to not always see the branches. (I think that the scroll might have to do with it?) I also tried to make it stop moving down if there is something below its butt. It would be cool if someone could take a look at this. slightly more commented version __AI if _invisible0 then goto __skipAIball ; he does ! work when invisible if !(rand & 127) then goto __skipAIball ;AI makes mistakes temp1 = (player1x - 14) / 4 temp2 = (player1y -1 ) / 8 temp3 = player1y - bally temp4 = %00000000 temp5 = (player1y + 1 ) / 8 if player1score = $c && bally < player1y then gosub __killbranch2 : gosub __firesound if player1score = $d then gosub __livesplus2 if pfread(temp1, temp2) then _left_right = _left_right ^ 32 : __skipAIball ;make AI dodge branch if any above him if pfread(temp1, temp5) then temp5 = 0 ; see if branch below him ; Chace missile if missile1y < player1y && player1y > 10 then player1y = player1y - 1 else if player1y < 82 && temp5 then player1y = player1y + 1 ; dodge coconut (broken) if ballx = player1x + 3 && temp3 < 30 then temp4{0} = 1 ;only dodge if coconut is there if !pfread(temp1,temp2) then temp4{1} = 1 ; see if nothing above ;if !pfread(temp1,temp2) then temp4{2} = 1 if !pfread(temp1,temp5) then temp4{2} = 1 ; see if its next to him ;if !pfread(25,9) then temp4{4} = 1 if temp4 = %00000111 then _left_right = _left_right ^ 32 ; dodge if possible __skipAIball __skipAI MonkeyKing0.23.bas

I went through all the goto's (got about 3 more out) and now have a staggering 90b left. THis is a good idea though. I've never ad that issue yet. (fingers crossed) Very odd though. Also do you have any tips on my AI btw? Trying to invest the new bytes into that, but if I add much more pfchecks It needs draw screens again. I added a 'if missile1 < player1y then player1y = player1y - 1' then I added a y and rewrote the pf pixels to read on the AI's level. Hoewever, he only looks above him now so if he goes down he hits everything. =/ I think that it would be awesome if he had this behaviour bit IDK if its doable. (Replace the AI with this to have a look at what I mean) ; AI controll if !switchleftb then __AI goto __skipAI __AI if _invisible0 then goto __skipAIball ; he does ! work when invisible if !(rand & 127) then goto __skipAIball temp1 = (player1x - 14) / 4 temp2 = (player1y ) / 8 temp3 = player1y - bally temp4 = %00000000 if player1score = $c && bally < player1y then gosub __killbranch2 : gosub __firesound if player1score = $d then gosub __livesplus2 if missile1y < player1y && player1y > 10 then player1y = player1y - 1 else if missile1y > player1y && player1y < 82 then player1y = player1y + 1 if pfread(temp1, temp2) then _left_right = _left_right ^ 32 : __skipAIball if ballx = player1x + 3 && temp3 < 30 then temp4{0} = 1 if !pfread(23,10) then temp4{1} = 1 if !pfread(25,10) then temp4{2} = 1 if !pfread(23,9) then temp4{3} = 1 if !pfread(25,9) then temp4{4} = 1 if temp4 = %00011111 then _left_right = _left_right ^ 32 __skipAIball __skipAI

Modern tv's lose sync if you use HDMI. So I really need to kill that glitch. Trying to narrow it down but no luck yet. No way you solved the framerate problem and freed up rom!

Aha that helped! odd that its only in PAL though. I think that I narrowed it down to branch creation of destruction. Thanks! That command is from a minikernel (that I didn't add here..oops) You can find it in the MK main thread. Where do you see rom space? I would be very happy to have some more. I got ~17b now. Ah thats good to know! I confused that effect with the blinking. But its something else.

Not sure if this is a bug, but you can't combine pfread with anything else in an if. It would be really nice if you could say 'if pfread(x,y) && pfread(z,w) then bla' or combine it with anything else. It can be solved by adding more if statements but that eats ROM.

Edit: Something strange is happening with the game now. It goes to 263 scanlines on seemingly random moments but always at playfieldpos = 0 and 3 lines before the top stump and branches are made. It only happens when the AI is being used. It does not seem to have to do with the missiles and coconut. (although the coconut moving up also seems to have glitched the scanlines too, but only if it also happened on this same scanline.) It also only seems to happen when AI is used. So either the AI code makes the loop too long (Which I do not expect, as then it would happen more often and regurarly?) or it does something that causes the slowdown. I am a bit at a loss here and it would be great if someone could take a look. I left the rest of this topic in tact so that the answers below make sense. Check here for latest upload: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/283009-strange-b-w-effect-in-game/?p=4114107 Old topic: I got a strange error in my game that draws the color slowly every few? frames. The framerate seems to be OK so I am not sure what is wrong and how to google for this error. (Black and white drawing didnt bring up anything.) You don't see it at all in Stella but on real hardware it blinks. I added a screenshot of the B&W effect and the code. MonkeyKing0.22.bas.bin MonkeyKing0.22.bas

I got a strange error in my game that draws the color slowly every few? frames. The framerate seems to be OK so I am not sure what is wrong and how to google for this error. (Black and white drawing didnt bring up anything.) You don't see it at all in Stella but on real hardware it blinks. I added a screenshot of the B&W effect and the code.

This game would be really cool with a MP function. Gove 30 lived to both and tombstone away.

I woke up litterally thinking 'damn what if that is an issue at high speed.' (As it does 2 steps then ) I'll have a look.

Thanks to a tip by Karl I managed to fix the scrolling. Still have 39 bytes left so open to suggestions of small features.

Thanks to a tip by Karl I managed to fix the scrolling. Still have 39 bytes left so open to suggestions of small features.

Maybe add game categories. Best platformer, best racer, arcade game, etc. Its hard to compare some categories, especially as not everybody likes everything. I'm not the greatest platformer fan myself, but love multiplayer games and the beat your own score arcade games. This is clearly not the case for many other people here and thats great because all game types get represented. (Apart from sports, nobody seems to be making sports home-brews )

Cool! Yea a list would help.

Now with boxart featuring art by Steve Hammond!

Now with cool box art!

New Version is up in the main thread. Thanks for the feedback Al! Firebutton can now be used AI now makes mistakes every now and then, but still does not move. I'm not sure if there is enough ROM to get that done. Top speed is now a lot higer, most people testing it seem happy with the new top speed. This is my main focus now. If you are fast enough you can get a stone between two branches. The AI ignores them because he does not actively go after stones. Graphics can't be improved (AFAIK) atleast in 4k. Not really enough space for this I think. Plus I am going for a more early atari look/feel. So a title screen would not fit well I think. I tried to make the AI move and it looks either unnatural or he just kills himself. Again space limitations. I might look into this, but my main problem with this is that the colors would change if players slow down. Which would be strange I think. Done! Good suggestion. I tried to go into 8K with the game, but the way that it is made (with a lot of gosubs) it does not fit into a bankswitch bank. (As gosubs and goto's take more bytes.) As far as I understand bank swiched programs (which is not very well I have to admit) I won't get a whole lot of more space for the game itself if I go there, so currently it does not seem to be worth it. I'm glad that you like it! I updated the game a bit to iron out all (I hope) errors. The game is not far from a final version now.